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Overview

Azure VMware Solution is a VMware validated first party Azure service from Microsoft that provides private clouds containing VMware vSphere clusters built from dedicated bare-metal Azure infrastructure. It enables customers to leverage their existing investments in VMware skills and tools, allowing them to focus on developing and running their VMware-based workloads on Azure.

At Microsoft, we’re continuously evolving our services based on customer feedback and Azure VMware Solution is no exception. As a fully Microsoft-managed service, Azure VMware Solution takes care of the end-to-end lifecycle management of your VMware environment, from ESXi host patching to vCenter Server and NSX upgrades. This ensures your private cloud stays secure, compliant, and up to date. 

Historically, planned maintenance for Azure VMware Solution was scheduled by Microsoft, and customers who needed the schedule adjustments had to open a support request to modify their maintenance windows. But that’s changing. 

Introducing Self-Service Maintenance Scheduling 

We’re thrilled to introduce Self-Service Scheduling for planned maintenance events in Azure VMware Solution. Go ahead and schedule your next Azure VMware Solution maintenance on your terms and let the built-in health checks guide you to a smooth upgrade: 

• Self-Service the planned Maintenance events – An Azure Portal feature that gives customers a user interface to view upcoming maintenance and schedule it to a preferred time without contacting support.

• Private Cloud “Maintainable State” Indicator – A built-in pre-check that determines if your private cloud is in a maintenance-ready state. If not, it will show which issues need attention to make the environment ready for upgrade. 

Designed for Agility and Peace of Mind 

These features mark a significant step toward a more agile and transparent Azure VMware Solution maintenance experience. You maintain the benefits of a fully managed service, expert-managed upgrades, built-in security, and full support, while gaining precise control over the timing of your upgrades. 

Whether you’re planning around critical business windows or simply want more predictability, the new self-service capabilities help ensure smoother, more efficient Azure VMware Solution operations. 

Ready to try it out?

Step 1 – Log in to the Azure portal and take control of your next maintenance event. It’s maintenance, your way. 

Step 2 – From the Azure VMware Solution private cloud Overview page in the Azure Portal, look for the maintenance message and click the schedule link or under the Operations option, select the Maintenance page.

 Step 3 – From the Maintenance page, check the “Maintenance ready” status for each item and use the “Reschedule” link to change the upgrade date and time.

 Step 4 – If the Maintenance ready status is “No”, check the detailed message for the remediation plan to unblock the upgrade.

Summary

Self-Service Maintenance Scheduling is now in Public Preview, use this instead of opening a service request to change your Azure VMware Solution planned maintenance.

If you are interested in the Azure VMware Solution, please use these resources to learn more about the service:

• Homepage: Azure VMware Solution 


• Documentation: Azure VMware Solution 


• SLA: SLA for Azure VMware Solution 


• Azure Regions: Azure Products by Region 


• Self-Service Maintenance: Plan self-service maintenance for Azure VMware Solution 

Author Bios

Hetal Prashnani is a Technical Program Manager in the Azure VMware Solution product group at Microsoft.

René van den Bedem is a Principal Technical Program Manager in the Azure VMware Solution product group at Microsoft. His background is in enterprise architecture with extensive experience across all facets of the enterprise, public cloud & service provider spaces, including digital transformation and the business, enterprise, and technology architecture stacks. René works backwards from the problem to be solved and designs solutions that deliver business value with the minimum of risk. In addition to being the first quadruple VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX), he is also a Dell Technologies Certified Master Enterprise Architect, a Nutanix Platform Expert (NPX), and a VMware vExpert.